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Nick Meyer goes up for 2 points for the Buccs against Ansonia.
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Team
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CCC
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ALL
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Ansonia
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10-1
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16-4
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Twin Valley South
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9-2
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15-5
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National Trail
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7-4
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14-6
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Franklin Monroe
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7-3
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10-8
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Covington
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7-4
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11-10
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Tri-Village
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6-5
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9-11
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Tri-County North
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5-6
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9-11
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Arcanum
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4-7
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9-11
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Bethel
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5-6
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8-12
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Newton
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2-9
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4-16
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Mississinawa Valley
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2-9
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4-16
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Bradford
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0-11
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0-20
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November 26. 2004 – COVINGTON
In a much anticipated contest, the Covington Buccaneers and the Ansonia Tigers hooked up in the season opener at Covington High School Friday. The game was a rematch of their season finale a year ago in which Ansonia defeated Covington 60-44 to take the Cross County Conference championship and hand the Buccs their only conference defeat of the season.
Covington was looking to avenge that defeat, but Ansonia, who retained much of its roster from a year ago, escaped with a 57-53 win on Covington's home floor.
"The kids are very disappointed because they really wanted a win tonight," said Covington coach Roger Craft. "Ansonia is a very talented basketball team, but we were right there in the end. We had three open looks at the basket to hopefully tie the game, but the ball didn't bounce our way."
Ansonia jumped on the Buccs early as they scored 8 of the game's first 10 points. Led by a Jack Steinke steal and a lay-up, the Tiger took an 8-2 lead with 1:52 off the clock.
Covington's Dustin Kimmel took over the action and scored the Buccs' next 7 points to cut the Tiger lead to 12-9. Unfortunately, in the process Kimmel picked up two fouls and was forced to the bench with 3:30 left in the first period.
Ansonia's Adam Braga took advantage of Kimmel's absence with a lay-up, but Covington's Richard Canan drilled a trey to make the score 14-12.
Ansonia then outscored the Buccs 5-2 to increase its lead to 19-14 and also force another Covington starter, Seth Mohler, to the bench with his second foul.
Despite the early foul troubles, Covington managed to cut into the Tigers' lead as Gene Studebaker canned a 3-pointers at the buzzer as he was falling out of bounds. Studebaker's trey made the score 19-17 at the end of the first quarter.
"That (Studebaker's 3-pointer) was a big basket," said Craft. "It gave us some momentum at a time where things were not going our way."
Studebaker opened the second quarter with a bucket inside to tie the score at 19.
Ansonia, however, took command of the boards with Kimmel and Mohler on the bench throughout the remainder of the half. The Tigers outscored Covington 14-5 over the remainder of the first half to take a 33-24 lead into the locker room.
"It really hurt us having our two best rebounders on the bench for much of the first half," commented Craft. "We didn't have an answer for Barga with Kimmel on the bench."
Covington opened the second half with a trey by Rhoades and a lay-up by Studebaker to cut the Ansonia lead to 34-29. Ansonia responded by going on a 10-2 run to increase its lead to 44-31 with 1:40 left in the third to force a Covington timeout.
After a Kimmel basket, Ansonia's Brad McEldowney canned three straight free throws after being fouled with .04 left on the clock in the third.
"That was a very critical turn of events," said Craft. "He (McEldowney) was just throwing the ball up to beat the buzzer and we made a mistake by picking up the foul."
Trailing 47-33 to start the final stanza, the Buccs began to make a run.
Studebaker and Darin Rhoades connected for 7 straight Covington points while the Buccs held Ansonia scoreless for the first 4:00 of the final period. The Tigers finally scored on a free throw with 3:58 left in the game to make the score 47-40 in favor of Ansonia.
Covington outscored the Tigers 16-6 over the next 3:30 and closed the gap to 56-53 on a Gene Stduebaker 3-pointer.
After a steal by Richard Canan, the Buccs had the ball with 14 seconds left in the game and called a timeout to set up a final push to tie the game.
After the ball was put into play the Buccs had three chances at treys but each time the ball wouldn't go down. Ansonia pulled down a rebound and Adam Barga was fouled. Barga connected on 1 of two free throws to end the contest in favor of the Tigers, 57-54.
"I'm proud of the effort the kids gave tonight," said Craft. "The kids played their hearts out, but the ball just didn't bounce our way."
Covington (0-1) looks to rebound Saturday as they host Fairlawn (1-0).
Scoring by quarters:
Buccs: ........17......24......33......53
Tigers: ........19......33......47......57
Covington Scoring:
Darin Rhoades – 17
Gene Studebaker – 12
Dustin Kimmel – 11
Seth Mohler – 4
Richard Canan – 3
Nick Meyer – 2
Michael Gilmore – 2
Ansonia Scoring:
Adam Barga – 18
Jack Steinke – 12
Brad McEldowney – 8
Kevin Harrod – 8
Craig Fosnaugh – 7
Tony Koesters – 2
Logan Beam – 2
